This article originally appeared in the SSA eMpirical No. 17 - The Harvard Conference.

On Friday night at the conference, Salman Rushdie will be receiving a lifetime achievement award in Memorial Church.  This awards ceremony will be followed by a literary reading.  

On Saturday morning, Rushdie will be part of a three-person panel discussion on Abrahamic Humanism.  

Fiction writer and essayist Salmon Rushdie is most known for his mythological tales criticizing fundamentalist Islam.  Born in Bombay India, and siding with the Pakistani effort during the Pakistan/India war, Rushdie soon grew distasteful towards Muslim extremism.  He cathartically relayed his sentiments to the world through mythological tales.  Rushdie’s prolific career includes many picaresque stories portraying the Prophet Muhammad in a non-traditional light, and draws attention to the brain-washing tactics employed in order to make one a religious killer.   The publication of The Satanic Verses: A Novel made Rushdie a substantial threat in the eyes of Islamic fascists, and on February 14th, 1989 he was condemned to death by the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini (and you thought your Valentine's Day was rough).  This death threat sent Rushdie into hiding.  He has recently ended his seclusion and has returned to public life to continue to share his insights and apprehensions of Muslim fundamentalists.

Salman Rushdie on The O’Reilly Factor: